About Me

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

When Did You Know You Were an Artist?

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Writer and literary adventurer Patrick Ross made a trip across the country a while back, interviewing creative folks of all stripes, during the course of which he stopped by my house. Now he's posted the small film above, in which I play some small part. Man, I was looking shaggy that day. But what the heck, it's another five seconds of fame. The other folks were looking pretty good, though.

I appear to have come later to my assertion of the role of artist than anybody else. That's probably because I was originally going to be a scientist. Or else an engineer, like my father.

I watched a truly stunning samurai flick last night with the extremely pulp title The Sword of Doom. Tatsuya Nakada plays an amoral killing machine who is nonetheless haunted by the violence he has done. Director Kihachi Okamoto crafted a film whose every frame is a work of art. And at the end, there's a seven-minute fight scene that all by itself justifies our collective desensitization of violence.

That said, the film is for hardcore samurai flick fans only. It was intended as the first movie of a trilogy and the other two were never made. So those who watch films for the story will find it it maddening how this one ends in mid-swordstroke, with all the major plotlines unresolved.